I "C" You "C"

As educators, we will be having more and more discussions about the Cs.  Depending on which book you read or who you talk to, there can be any number of Cs.

At the core of the Cs are critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.  There is broad reaching consensus around the importance the Cs for our students’ futures.  On the surface it is easy to brush off the Cs thinking that, “Of course our students practice these competencies.”   The question is really at what level and with what kind of rigor or intentionality.

Our district is currently looking at 4Cs work from EdLeader21 (http://www.edleader21.com).  EdLeader21 is a professional learning community providing leading work on designing rubrics for the 4Cs.

As an entry point, below are the Cs and the performance areas associated with them. We will link up the full rubrics in the next post.

Critical Thinking

• Information and discovery


• Interpretation and analysis


• Reasoning


• Problem solving/solution finding


• Constructing arguments


• Self-regulation/reflection

Creativity

• Idea generation


• Idea design and refinement


• Openness and courage to explore


• Work creatively with others


• Creative production and innovation


• Self-regulation/reflection

Collaboration

• Leadership and initiative


• Cooperation


• Flexibility


• Responsibility and productivity


• Use of technology tools for synchronous and asynchronous collaboration


• Responsiveness


• Self-regulation/reflection

Communication

• Engaging in conversations and discussions


• Using 21st Century communication tools


• Listening


• Communicating in diverse environments


• Delivering oral presentations


• Self-regulation/reflection

Image C Mosaic CC BY Leo Reynolds